After a record year for dengue fever in Sri Lanka in 2017, the first three months of 2018 saw a decrease in cases to date.
In 2017, Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health saw 186,101 cases, about 3 1/2 times the number of cases reported in 2016.
In the first three months of 2018, health officials reported 14,627 dengue cases, less than half of 33, 191 cases reported during the same period last year.
Approximately 31.7% of dengue cases were reported from the Western province. The highest numbers of dengue cases were reported during the 29th week of 2017.
The outbreak situation in 2017 warranted extensive and regular removal of possible mosquito breeding sites from the environment, along with strengthened patient education on management of fever which resulted in a relatively low mortality.
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